[slams fists on table] you KNOW WHAT CAITVI SCENE I HAVEN'T TALKED ABOUT YET
i don't know HOW i managed to go this long without dumping my thoughts on this scene out all over your dashboards but it's happening today because i have so many of them. specifically i want to talk about the opposite ways they approach this moment and what that tells us about both of them as individuals. because they both kind of...switch into a totally different mode than the way they've been treating each other before this and i find that super fascinating.
the first thing that stood out to me about this scene (and probably to most of us, aside from how it made us scream internally) was the direct callback to two episodes earlier, how vi wouldn't say "thank you" to caitlyn for literally saving her life. but here, she does.
vi is finally letting herself say what she refused to say previously, when she had insisted on holding caitlyn at arm's length. she's letting herself be genuine, and a little raw. "thanks. for everything." for rescuing her from literal hell on earth, for saving her life, for dragging her injured ass through the undercity to keep her out of silco's reach. for showing her gentleness and compassion when nobody had done that for her in years. her words are so simple but they hold so much meaning.
and this would have been a big enough deal, but she also lets herself act--just a little bit!--on the romantic feelings she's developing for caitlyn.
even this small gesture of affection is like....massive considering the depth of vi's trust issues.
but before i jump into why i think vi is willing to express these things, i'm going to talk about caitlyn, because i think the reason behind her actions is the same.
caitlyn also does kind of a 180 in this scene with regards to how she acts towards vi. and i'm not even talking about the hug itself. see up until this point cait has ALWAYS been the one to approach this relationship with more openness. she's the first to attempt to be friendly, or helpful. she openly confronts vi about her lack of gratitude. she is willing to say out loud that they need to work with each other to develop trust if they expect anything positive to come out of their partnership.
but here? not a word. and i don't think that's because she has intentionally closed herself off from vi--that wouldn't make sense with the hug--but rather it seems to me like she's just at a total loss for words. she can't come up with a single thing to say, and i think it's killing her.
you can see her struggle in her eyes here and when vi touches her face, and even after they've parted when she's walking with ekko and still seemingly agonizing over her inability to express her feelings:
so the point: why do they act this way? why is it that, at this moment of separation, vi suddenly so forthcoming while caitlyn stays quiet? i think it's because they're saying goodbye. to put it simply, vi is used to losing people she cares about, and caitlyn is not.
now i don't want to downplay vi's feelings here. she obviously doesn't want to leave caitlyn, it obviously pains her. but this is what she knows. separation. isolation. i don't think she ever thought for one moment, either before she grew close to caitlyn or maybe especially afterward, that caitlyn would be a permanent part of her life. so this is the moment she's been expecting, even if it's very different from what she once assumed it would look like. she knows from experience that when you're about to lose someone, you have to say the things, do the things, that you'll regret later if you don't.
and most importantly? for vi, there is vulnerability in connection and safety in separation. relationships are painful. love is painful. so when she was with caitlyn and the end wasn't immediately in sight, she kept her walls up either through anger and hostility or later with softer, more affectionate teasing. but now she's walking away, and this thing she has with caitlyn will never have the chance to hurt more than this, so that means it's safe to really lower her walls and let caitlyn inside them, just for a moment.
for caitlyn, just the opposite. she is used to having things last. she feels most secure when she has someone to rely on, because she has never been without that in her life. she doesn't know how to say goodbye to someone she cares about because she's never had to before. losing vi is the thing that hurts the most.
jinx calls this a "goodbye hug", and for vi, that's accurate. but for caitlyn, i think this is an "i don't want to say goodbye" hug. cait doesn't often talk about her feelings but the few times she does, it comes across as spontaneous, almost accidental. ("what about us?" is the perfect example.) here, if caitlyn opened her mouth, i think the only thing that would come out is "don't go" and she knows she doesn't have any right to say that, not when vi is leaving to rescue her sister. so she says nothing, and instead just holds onto vi for as long as she can.
and if you look very closely at this tERRIBLE blurry screenshot...
you can see vi's hand on caitlyn's shoulder. she's the one who broke the embrace, otherwise cait might have held on forever.
tl;dr caitlyn is hopeless at saying goodbye and vi is far better at it than anyone should need to be. oil and water? maybe. but that didn't stop them from coming together in this beautiful moment which, i think, broke barriers between them that otherwise would have remained in place for a long time.
ellievsbear
stormborns
kianamaiart
baratheonpilled
